Many public safety or other private or government wireless communication systems provide for group-based radio communications amongst a plurality of radios (subscriber units). During the formation of a group, all radios within the group will share certain radio parameters (e.g., channel, alerts, . . . , etc). In certain situations, important alerts may need to be provided to the group or groups operating in a particular defined area. For example, at a mining site, events such as blasting operations impart unique alerting requirements on the wireless communication system and subscriber devices operating therein in preparation for, and perhaps during, a blasting operation. In other situations, a group or groups of subscriber devices may need to be alerted about events such as hazardous material leaks, high crime, or weather alerts relative to a particular defined area. Other examples are possible as well.
In order to address the above, a geofence may be created that defines a particular area of interest. Those units within the geofence may have their radios operate in a similar manner (e.g., all tune to the same channel, all receive the same alerts, . . . , etc.) regardless of the infrastructure equipment being utilized. In addition, units that cross a geofence boundary may be notified that the boundary has been crossed.
A problem exists when unwanted or irrelevant actions occur too frequently due to multiple crossings of geofence boundaries. For example, consider a dangerous zone in a city where a police officer should be alerted when entering this zone. However if a police officer has certain equipment, the risk is lower, so applying this geofence and alerting all officers may be unnecessary, especially when alerts are received frequently. Therefore a need exists for a method and apparatus for setting geofence boundaries that alleviates the above-mentioned problem.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.